Lost, A Tale of Phantom
by MarshmallowMayhem
Summary: Phic Phight 2019 entry 1 prompt by Phantasmapurple9 While exploring an unfamiliar part of the ghost zone, Phantom gets separated from Sam and Tucker and finds himself in a strange Ghost library…


The ecto energy storm seemed to come out of nowhere. Danny clung desperately to the side of the Specter Speeder in a feeble attempt to not get thrown about in the spectral gale winds. He could feel his grip slipping. He curled his fingers to hold tighter but it didn't help. A powerful current jolted the Speeder and he was thrown free of it. The wild energies tossed his body in so many directions it made his head spin and every attempt to right himself or regain some form of stability only resulted in even less control over the direction he was going. He managed to stop spinning long enough to catch sight of the Specter Speeder, but it was already too far away. He could barely make out Sam, clinging to the steering wheel in a desperate attempt to regain control of the ship, and Tucker, clutching his seat and trying his best not to throw up as they were tossed about in a dizzying manner.

Danny tried to fly towards them but the storm was too powerful. Debris and ghostly energy blocked his vision and then something struck the back of his head. He was vaguely aware of his body being tossed about in the wind and uncontrollable ecto energies, but the fog that entered his mind made it impossible to focus on anything. He felt several things collide with his body, tossing him about further until finally, he slammed into something large and solid. It was several minutes before he realized the winds were dying down and the howling of the storm was fading.

Danny shook his head and immediately regretted it as a wave of nausea washed over him. "So that's what a concussion feels like," Danny muttered, half-heartedly making a joke at his own rotten luck. He hoped his ghost form would be able to walk it off.

Slowly the fog that had taken over his brain cleared and his vision returned to normal, although an ache remained in his head. Taking care not to stand too quickly he began to take note of his surroundings.

For the most part, it was the same as everywhere in the ghost zone, a great endless void of darkness punctuated with green ecto energy clouds and floating rocks. The occasional door would lead to a ghost's lair and in some cases entire islands dotting the observable space. Unfortunately, none of it looked familiar. The only thing he was certain of, was that he had landed on a boulder the side of a car.

Danny reached up to his ear and found that the Fenton Phone he had been using to communicate with Sam and Tucker had snapped in half. He glared at the dangling bit of metal and wire before pocketing the broken remains. "Well, great. I hope Sam and Tuck remember how to use the navigation system in the Speeder, cause they're going to need it." Danny would have to get back by other means.

Rising off the floating rock he picked a direction and began to fly. Maybe he'd meet someone who could tell him how to get back, or if he flew far enough maybe he'd come across someone familiar who could guide him home, assuming, of course, that the familiar person wasn't an enemy.

…

According to his phone, which only had twenty percent power left, Danny had been flying in the same direction for nearly an hour and still hadn't found anyone helpful. Worse still, his head continued to throb.

"If the ghost zone had cell reception I could have called Tucker and Sam," Danny grumbled with great annoyance. "But no, all these ghosts who can create high tech machinery and instead of inventing reliable communication, they use it to come after me."

Danny moaned loudly into his hands. At this rate, he'd be lost forever.

Danny was just starting to imagine life in the ghost zone as a wandering nomad when he spotted an unusually large building sitting elegantly atop a massive slab of stone. The island lair looked a bit like a quaint cabin or a mountain retreat, only it was a good four stories tall and had the foreboding presence of a government building. The stone steps led up to the wood frame which had been carved and painted in a manner intended to inspire comfort, or it would have if the building hadn't been so massively huge.

As Danny flew closer he spotted a sign.

_**Library: enter freely and read to your leisure. No fighting allowed. I'm f* #!&$ serious. If you damage my books I will end you. Enjoy your stay.**_

"Well, that's a mixed message if I ever saw one." In spite of the message Danny was certain of one thing, a library this big had to have a huge store of information, which meant it might even have a map or something that could help he get home. Deciding to take a chance Danny made his way up the steps and reached for the door.

Danny immediate pressed himself into a wall before anyone could see him. He tried to remember if he had seen a motorcycle outside but was drawing a blank. Taking a breath he peaked around the corner. Johnny 13 was reclined in an enormous bean bag chair and flipping through what looked like a comic book. He didn't seem to be paying attention so Danny quickly scurried into the closest aisle.

"Right," Danny muttered to himself. "Probably best to avoid getting spotted by someone who wants to punch me every time we meet."

Danny glanced at the shelves. The books seemed to be mostly adventure novels. The next aisle was all sci-fi and the following one was fantasy.

Danny took half a step towards the next aisle and ducked back at once. He should have known that if Johnny was here it meant his girlfriend Kitty was also nearby.

Danny peaked around the corner. Kitty was facing the other way and looking at a book with text resembling dripping blood and a set of creepy eyes and teeth looming just below. Clearly, this was the horror section.

Danny snuck past to the next aisle and checked carefully before slipping between the shelves. He tried to remember how libraries were laid out. He was certain there was a geography section as part of the dewy decimal system but he was also pretty sure he slept through that class and couldn't recall anything useful.

With few other choices, Danny proceeded to carefully sneak from aisle to the next, checking each shelf to figure out where he was. It wasn't long before Danny was in the last aisle. So far every single shelf had nothing but novels, not a single history book, bibliography, or even an encyclopedia. The entire library seemed to contain only stories.

"I could have sworn this place was bigger on the outside," Danny muttered to himself. He had been trying to find a set of stairs or an elevator or something in hopes the geography section was on another floor, but no matter where he looked there was only this one room.

Danny was about to check the shelves again, thinking maybe he had missed something when he saw movement in the corner of his eye. Danny darted around the corner before he could be seen and peaked between the shelves to make sure he hadn't been spotted.

Browsing the romance section was a large ghost sporting an oversized battle suit and a green mohawk. No matter what warning that sign out front had given Danny was certain this was one ghost that would not hesitate to fire at him should they cross paths. Danny had to get out of here. He'd have to find his way home without a map.

Danny leaned around the corner and check if the door was clear. It wasn't. Johnny was browsing the comic rack and blocking his only escape route. Pulling back Danny snuck down the aisle to look around the other corner. There had to be a way out he had missed, an open window, or a back door…

There was a door. A solid, simple grey door with a blue feather painted near the top. This was his best, and probably only chance. Checking that no one was watching Danny flew past the remaining aisles and grabbed the handle. Relief swept over him as it turned with ease. Yanking it open he hurried inside.

The room beyond was dark, but as his eyes adjusted he became aware of dim light at the end of a long hall. Danny started forward and came out between several enormous bookcases. They were each easily twice the height of the ones in the other room. Danny hurried forward until the shelves opened to a balcony overlooking a huge space with tables and chairs and even more enormous shelves. His eyes roamed along the walls and up a solid four stories to an arched ceiling. He had no doubt this space was the reason the building had looked so big from the outside.

Danny was tempted to call out, just to hear the resonating echo that would likely sound in such a space, but his desire to not be found by ghosts who wanted him dead won out. Instead, he vaulted the balcony and floated down to the floor below. Maybe there was a card catalog here or something to help him figure out where to find a map. Assuming there even was a map here and not just more novels.

Danny didn't see anything that looked like it would help him find what he needed so he resigned himself to browsing the shelves. The only good news was he was no longer surrounded by novels. This section seemed to be the bibliography section. Or maybe it was the Autobiography section. In any case, the title of every book he passed was someone's name. Christene, Cinder, Clarence, Clockwork…

Danny's head jolted back and he reread the title. He couldn't help himself. Danny reached out and pulled the book from the shelf and flipped open to a random page.

"What the heck?" Danny said confused.

The words, or the parts that looked like words, were a jumbled mess that literally swam before his eyes. The ink was constantly shifting and he could only catch a glimpse of a phrase or two at best before it was lost in the swirling mess on the page.

"Ooh, yeah that one's pretty impossible to read," a chipper voice said over his shoulder.

Danny jumped and whipped his head around to look at a blue-skinned ghost with cobalt hair, green eyes and a set of goggles on top of her head. She floated several inches off the floor, her ghostly tail curling behind her and she glanced at the open book.

The ghost chuckled and pointed to the swirling mess on the page. "Yeah, this guy's story is a mess. These things are supposed to record the chronological events in a ghost's existence but since that guy has a screwy chronology this thing is in a constant state of rewriting itself."

"Oh, I guess there's no point in looking then," Danny said awkwardly as he put the book back. A moment later what she had said caught up to him. "Wait, what do you mean these record a ghosts' chronology...or...something?"

The ghost gestures at the whole of the collection around them. "These are all ghost stories, specifically the stories of different ghosts in the ghost zone. They are a complete record of every the title ghost has and will experience," she said proudly.

"So these things tell the future?" Danny asked curiously.

"Not exactly, they record the future, which means if the future changes they will change accordingly. That doesn't happen often though."

"So I could find out my future?" Danny wondered if his book would tell him how to get home.

"No."

Danny frowned. "Why not?"

"You don't have one yet," the ghost shrugged. "I remember every single ghost I made a record of and I've never met you so you don't have a record. Although you may have shown up in other ghosts stories, you won't have a story of your own." The ghost then grinned, her green eyes shining. "But, we can fix that easily."

Danny watched as the ghost took hold of a strand of her cobalt hair and pulled. With a flick, the strand of hair became a feather quill.

"Uh, will this take long?" Danny asked. If she had to write the whole thing he wasn't sure it would be worth the wait.

"Not at all." The ghost held up her other hand. It began to glow with a green light and a moment later the light solidified into a book. "All I need is a bit of your energy. Then I put it in here," she waved the book, "and done."

Danny was about to agree when his common sense kicked in. "Hold on one last question, will anyone else be reading that book?"

"I read all my books, well almost all of them. Some ghosts are just so, so boring. Did you know there' a tax ghost? All he does is taxes, not even just his taxes, he does everyone's taxes, all the time. It. Is. So. Boring." The ghost then groaned, clearing missable over the memory alone.

"But what about other ghosts," Danny asked. "Let's say Skulker walks in here and asks to read my book. Would he be able to do that?"

The ghost thought about it. "I can't promise no one will break in here and read it, or that someone with a really good reason to read your story won't show up. I can only promise that if someone does I will even the playing field by letting you read their book."

"In that case, I'd rather not have a book about me floating around."

The ghost waved her hands and the quill and book faded into spectral mist. "Suit yourself."

Danny was a bit surprised. "You're not going to force me to give you my energy? Try and convince me it's for the best, or bribe me with untold knowledge or something?" Most ghosts were...extremely passionate about their interests and Danny had expected this one to be just as passionate about collecting ghost stories.

The ghost shrugged. "Why is your story interesting enough to be worth reading?"

Danny hesitated, "N-no not really." He was starting to realize this ghost might have no idea who he was. If she found out he was half-ghost there was a good chance she would find that interesting enough to become obsessed with his story. It was better not to take that risk.

"Um…" Danny began, "maybe you could help me out. Is there a geography section, or someplace in here with maps of the ghost zone. I'm actually a bit lost and need to figure out how to get home. Plus I got separated from my friends. They're probably really worried."

"Sorry, no maps here," the ghost said with another shrug. "But I might be able to help you find your friends."

"Really, that would be great," Danny paused in his excitement. "Um, how exactly…"

The ghost waved at her collection once more. "Like I said this library has a complete record of every experience the title ghosts of these books ever had and will have. We just need to find the ones who saw your friends."

"What about an ecto storm?" Danny said suddenly. "We got caught in an ecto storm around this marsh looking lair. If we know where that storm went we can find where my friends ended up."

"Yes!" the ghost said excitedly. Big events like that are always easier to trace. She flew up to a set of shelves on the third level.

Danny followed quickly.

"Let's see, what else was near the marsh? Was it more green or blue?"

"Purple actually," Danny said trying to recall his surrounding. "We were just out of sight of Dorathea's Kingdom, and if we had turned left we would have eventually ended up at Skulkers lair."

The ghost suddenly dived down to the second level and hurried along the shelves before grabbing a book and flipping through its pages.

"Yes, here we go. Looks like the storm actually twisted downward after it picked you up, which means…"

She hurried to the top floor and pulled out several more books before she found what she needed. "Hey, there's some paper in that desk. We'll want to write down some notes so you can trace the storm's path back to where it picked you up."

Danny hurried to grab the paper and even located a pencil. He then watched the ghost dart back and forth through the library checking one book after another. Occasionally she would shout a landmark and directions for him to write down.

"Hey, what do your friends look like? They might have gotten tossed out of the storm at some point."

Danny started to describe Tucker before remembering they had been in the Speeder. "Actually they were riding this round ship. Sort of looks like something that could explore the ocean, but smaller."

The ghost continued searching until she found something. "Here we go, looks like a white vehicle with a big glass window on the front got thrown from the storm not far from one of the spectral forests. Oh, no wait it will be thrown from the storm near one of the forests. I always get confused when I read ahead." The ghost laughed at her little mistake and Danny jotted down the note about the forest.

"Great, how do I get there?"

The ghost returned the book to the shelf and glided down to jot a few notes on the paper.

"There if you follow these directions you will find the forest. I suggest waiting until the storm passes to get near it, otherwise, you might end up lost again."

"Thank you," Danny said with relief and folded the paper into his pocket. He then remembered how he had ended up back here, to begin with. "Uh, you wouldn't happen to have a back door I could use? I saw some ghosts who really hate me in the front before and I'd rather not get into a fight on my way out."

The ghost raised an eyebrow and pointed to a row in the back. "Back door is that way, but once it closes you won't be able to get back in."

"Thank you, again. I really appreciate the help." Danny held out his hand. "I'm Danny by the way, and I forgot to ask your name."

"Quill," the ghost said taking his hand in return.

"Well thank you, Quill. I would have had a hard time getting back without you."

"It was my pleasure," Quill said with a smile and watched as Danny darted through the back exit.

Once he was out of sight she brought her hand thoughtfully to her chin. Flying to a shelf on the third level she pulled a book out and flipped through it to a section describing a young ghost boy in a black and white hazmat suit fighting with the ghost the story belonged to.

"Danny Phantom," Quill said reading the name. She then sighed regretfully. "I should have insisted he let me record his story."


End file.
